Over 100,000 social engineering attacks are launched each day on businesses of all sizes, according to a report by Travelers Insurance Company.

Real-life scenario
An accounts payable employee received an email that appeared to be from a vendor requesting a payment be made to a different account due to an ongoing audit. The payment was made to the new account number. It wasn't until the company received a past due notice and called the vendor did they learn the vendor's email account had been hacked. The email sent with payment instructions was fraudulent.

How does this happen?
This surprisingly successful tactic works every day on unsuspecting employees. They can receive an "URGENT!" message appearing to be from another employee or legitimate vendor, that contains a variety of requests and information. In many cases, the fraudster has infiltrated an email conversation to obtain an employee or vendor signature block to make it appear even more legitimate.

Why does your business need protection?
Even well-managed businesses with proven best practices of employee training, partner background screenings, and financial checks and balances can be infiltrated. Fraudsters can gain the confidence of an employee by posing as a fellow employee (usually a CEO or CFO), a vendor, or business associate, and instructing the employee to divert money. The deception is often unnoticed until they are notified by the real recipient that payment has not been received.

Utilize these tips from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Trend Micro to safeguard your practice against business email attacks. Contact Mitch Laycock at (720) 858-6297 to discuss cyber crime coverage and how it would address the various social engineering schemes that exist.

Cavities are the most chronic childhood disease, being five times more common than asthma. Children with pain from tooth decay typically miss more school and have lower grades than their peers, and this often causes parents to miss work. But cavities are preventable with the right oral health care routine.

Delta Dental of Colorado is introducing Right Start 4 Kids ^SM, an innovative plan enhancement that removes most of the cost barriers to dental care by providing coverage for children up to their 13th birthday at 100%, with no deductible, when in-network providers are seen.

Delta Dental is making Right Start 4 Kids ^SM available to most small groups (2-100) that have a standard plan, not customized, as of 1/1/18. Current groups will receive this benefit enhancement as part of their renewal. New small groups will have it as a standard part of their plan. Contact John Kaufman at (720) 858-6287 for more information.

Most people will face a financial crisis at some point in life. It can be short-term, like paying to fix a leaky roof, or something that lasts longer such as unemployment or medical costs for an extended illness. Access to an emergency fund can potentially downgrade a financial crisis into a financial inconvenience.

There are two ways to build an emergency fund: 1) lower expenses; and 2) raise income. Consider these tips:

Saving More 

• Maintain a spending book: Track your spending for a month, sort spending into categories, and evaluate. Examine every dollar that isn't going to necessities.
• Eliminate budget busters: Try going without cable, bring your lunch to work, make coffee at home, lower the thermostat, and shop secondhand. Small changes add up. 
• Renegotiate: Call your service providers and ask for better rates. Ask the bank to pay less interest on your credit card and shop around if they say no.  

• Sell something: Evaluate your belongings; you may be surprised at how many items could be sold for cash.  
• Get a second job: a couple of weeks at an extra job can make a difference. 
• Rent your spare room: Make your place available on a short-term vacation rental website. 
• Sign up for focus groups: Marketers and pollsters will pay for your opinion. 

Perhaps you were intrigued by a self-funded health plan last year during open enrollment, but didn't have the opportunity to better research plan differences. Now is a wonderful time to learn about types of plans in order to be aware of options when plans are announced in the Fall of 2018.

Self-funding is when a company pays for its own medical claims, using a third-party administrator to process claims and administer the plan. Under this funding mechanism, the employer assumes the financial risk for providing health care to its employees. With a fully insured plan, the employer pays a fixed premium to the carrier based on the number of employees enrolled and the specifics of the plan. Fully insured plans are typically the more common option for smaller businesses because the insurance company assumes the financial and legal risk of paying eligible claims.

Today's market allows smaller employer groups to consider self-funding, under what is called "level funding." Level funding is much like fully insured, however, it allows the group to share in the surplus at the end of the year should there be claim savings on your plan. The typical group size to begin this funding arrangement is about 15 enrolled participants. Contact John Kaufman at (720) 858-6287 for more details or to see if your group would be a good candidate.